Chimps Found Making Own Weapons to Hunt for Food

Pojut writes "The Washington Post has an article involving chimps and weapons. Apparently, there have been direct observations of chimps in the west African savannah modifying sticks to create spears. They then use these spears to kill small mammals and eat them. It is the first time that an animal other than a human has been directly observed in crafting a weapon for the purpose of hunting or killing."

Re:UPDATE: Nearby females notice...

[puppetman]

It was the females making the tools, not the males. A woman's body-building competition might be more apt here.

Re:Semantics

[ericspinder]

Sorry, I don't buy the story. Just media sensationalism to me.

Actually there is a big difference. Finding stick on ground and knowing that more ants will crawl on it if it is bent a certain way, is one thing. However, finding large stick on ground, taking the time to sharpen it, stalk another animal, and then use it effectively, is something else altogether.

Re:The next stage of evolution...

[Wannabe Code Monkey]

First this: Evidence of Chimp Developing "Spoken" Language [slashdot.org], then this: Chimps Use Tool Kit [slashdot.org], and now Chimps Found Making Own Weapons to Hunt for Food. I'm telling you, we gotta get off this rock soon.

It's not just the chimps.

[ScentCone]

Crows, it appears [pbs.org], will also use tools to get at grubs they otherwise wouldn't be able to kill and eat. Some critters are smart that way. There are also now observed cases of mother dolphins passing along tool-using culture [pnas.org] in food-gathering.

Re:It's not just the chimps.

[ScentCone]

In the case of the crows, the crows are seen carefully looking around for just the right semi-fresh twig, and then bending it into a putter/hockey-stick shape so that they can use it to hook the grubs out of cracks. Pretty cool.

I agree though, that there's something more sophisticated about sharpening, vs. bending. At least a little, anyway.

Re:But from where...

[Dun Malg]

I would like to know if this is a learned behavior from an outside source or if this is simply something they have discovered on their own.

Chimps are very much like us. They engage in warfare with other chimp tribes, they use "hammer and anvil" tactics in hunting parties--- none of this learned from outside. The idea that nature is some sort of benign place full of happy peaceful animals living in harmony is definitely wishful thinking.

Re:"Hammer and anvil"?

[Anonymous Coward]

> Can you tell me what "hammer and anvil" tactics are?

Anvil: A bunch of good guys fighting with bad guys, and their job isn't so much to win, it's to keep everyone fighting at a draw over the next few hours. (Sometimes the Anvil is a geographical obstacle like a cliff or shoreline, but in human warfare, it's traditionally been a bunch of guys who act as an immovable object, whether they're armed with spears/shields/pikes or a wall of machine guns.)

Hammer: A bunch of well-rested good guys whose job it is to (optionally, chase the bad guys towards the anvil, but in all cases - even if it's the anvil that starts the fight - once the bad guys are engaged with the anvil) swoop in and crush the somewhat-tired bad guys who have spent the earlier part of their afternoon stuck on the anvil.

Bad guys: Squished like bug.

The tactic dates back around 5000 years in human history. From a hammer chimp's perspective, it requires faith and foresight: you have to believe that your anvil-buddies will be able to hold off the bad guys, for long enough, and at the right location for you to get there before the bad guys are aware of your arrival. From an anvil chimp's perspective, it requires even more faith and foresight: as the anvil, you're thrown into a losing fight (the bad guys won't attack the anvil unless they think they can kill you to the last man!), and you have to belive your tribal leader when he says he'll be able to actually deliver the "hammer" troops that will win the day (read: "save your chimp ass!") before you're wiped out.

It's been decent tactical strategy between evenly-matched forces since prehistoric human times, up until the WW2 and Korea, and (albeit on a much smaller scale) engagements in Vietnam.

It's something you can't do unless you have not just a pack hierarchy/dominance structure, but also a language/communications system capable of abstracting out concepts like "position" and "time". Plenty of nonhuman species have exhibited the former trait, but humans (up until these chimps :) have been pretty unique when it comes to exhibiting the latter.

If chimps are indeed doing it, it's pretty impressive, and if we screw up in such a way that we're wiped out, but they aren't, they're welcome to the planet once we're through with it. I'd rather see our 2-million-year-separated cousins take over the planet than the cockroaches.

Re:killing animals making tools?

[Cadallin]

Ummm, You probably haven't noticed because the US media doesn't tend to mention it much, but the Iraqi's (Since Saddam Hussein's removal) have been engaged in a civil war between the Suni and Shi'ite muslims. We're just kind of in the way, and thus, both sides pretty frequently lob a grenade, or fire an AK47 at American troops.

It's all really perfectly comprehensible. The US military removed the dominant power in the area, who had maintained order through military strength. The two largest sides are now getting down to the business of fighting a war of genocide to see who gets to control the area, and as one side (does it really even matter which?) outnumbers the other by about 3:1, its going to get pretty bad.

Note that this is one of the things the Anti-War democrats had been saying during the build up to the invasion. Along with, "This is a horrible mistake," "It's going to be another Vietnam," and "We don't have enough troops to do it anyway."

Re:But from where...

[Anonymous Coward]

You missed electing George W. Bush to the office of the president of the United States.

Twice.

You're all the proudest monkey's I've ever seen.

Re:But from where...

[joh]

Chimps are very much like us. They engage in warfare with other chimp tribes, they use "hammer and anvil" tactics in hunting parties--- none of this learned from outside.

There are two species comprising the chimpanzee genus. The common chimp is what you describe, the Pygmy Chimp (also called Bonobo [wikipedia.org]) is much different. Bonobos don't engage in warfare and prefer having sex with each other all day over aggressive encounters. They're much less dominant and aggressive within their tribes, too.

Both species seem to thrive well. I find it kind of refreshing to see that there are very different social models possible and both work. And while the chimps seem to be more inventive when it comes to killing, the Bonobos are certainly more inventive when it comes to having fun. I think we should learn from them.

It's also interesting to see that the behaviour of Bonobos seems to be much too unsettling that you will see or read much of it. Even in scientific literature they were more or less taboo for a long time and even today you won't see documentaries showing them having all kinds of sex just for fun (and they really do that all the time, including oral sex, masturbation and homosexual sex).

Re:But from where...

[tenco]

It has just been kept around much longer than it should have, and has been used in much higher quantities than it should.

I think that's the "foresight" part...

Re:The Technical Term is "Flanking"

[krack]

I agree with nearly everything you said. Especially the Patton quote.

and the 300 Immortals who held off an entire Persian army.

I offer a small correction and mostly in the spirit of honoring the dead. The Immortals were the Persian elite, not the Greek. The name of the group you are thinking of is the Spartans who, conservatively, achieved a nearly 20 to 1 kill ratio in that battle. The Immortals were actually sent in against the Spartans on the second day of the battle of Thermopylae and they comprised the majority of the force that walked the hidden mountain path around the pass which ultimately led to the defeat of the Spartans and the Greeks. Which makes your points about anchored flanks and trained defenders resisting the psychological trauma of flanking even more valid. Had the 300 Spartans + 700 Greeks not been outflanked by a traitor, they probably would have held off the 120,000+ strong Persian army.

In the end, the Spartans died to a man (even 1 who missed the battle because he was on orders to secure reinforcements hung himself in shame). However their 3 day delay and manpower and morale impact on the Persian army allowed the rest of the Greeks to assemble a large enough force to push Xerxes out of Greece, both in land and in water. See also the Greek phrase "Molon Labe".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Thermopylae [wikipedia.org]

Uh, no - we can't

[tacokill]

"We are so close to Chimpanzee's that a human/ape hybrid is possible without the help of genetic manipulation,"

No. That's not possible. [madsci.org]

Re:But from where...

[Rei]

Yes, both corvines (crows, ravens, and jays) and psitticines (parrots) are known to make use of tools. I've read case reports about a crow whittling a stick down and picking its (simple) cage lock with it, and another case of a parrot using one of its shed feathers to scratch its back.

These two classes are generally considered to be the most intelligent birds. Heck, there's even one type of parrot that hunts large prey in a manner that humans used to hunt large game. Individuals of New Zealand's kea population (also known as the "feathered wolf") have been observed hunting sheep (a size ratio comparable to humans hunting mammoths). Sheep being an introduced species with no similar native animal, it appears to be a learned behavior, not an evolved one. Such kea tend to harass a sheep, attacking it until it runs gets caught in a hazard (such as a falling off a dropoff, getting stuck against a fence, etc). The kea then kills and eats it. Being intelligent animals, "play" is a big part of their culture. Unfortunately for them, their play doesn't endear them to ranchers, either -- they like to play with things like rubber ripped off of car windows. Needless to say, the kea has been ruthlessly hunted because of its habits.

Re:But from where...

[Rei]

And for those who haven't seen that this is an urban legend:

Claim: The United States standard railroad gauge derives from the original specification for an Imperial Roman war chariot. Status: False. [snopes.com]